Covered in soot and barely alive

A CLONSILLA vet has been hailed a hero for saving two Yorkshire Terriers from near death after they were rescued from a burning house fire at the end of last month.

Fiona O’Leary, from Hillcrest Veterinary Hospital, has dealt with a lot of animal trauma during her career but says helping to save the terriers was one of the most emotional incidents she has ever faced.

The dogs belonged to locals Elidas Kekys and Elvyra Kekiene, whose Blanchardstown apartment went on fire with the dogs trapped inside. Fiona’s drama began with a phone call.

“Our nurse called me and said ‘Fiona, you need to come down straight away, we’ve just pulled two dogs out of a burning house fire,’” she told Northside People.

“There was another dog I was dealing with that had been hit by a car and then the Fire Brigade literally turned up within minutes of getting that call with the two dogs.

“In that situation it’s quite unusual for you to get three animals in emergency all at once, but my job was to assess which dog needed my urgent attention the most.

“I could see the firemen coming in with their breathing apparatus’ and these dogs were covered in soot and barely alive.”

The dogs, Bucci and Chance, had been rescued from the couple’s apartment in Waterville after they were found terrified under a bed during the middle of the blaze. 

Fiona added that the dogs were almost forgotten about but luckily their owner Elidas told firefighters the terriers were still inside and their natural reaction would be to retreat under the bed.

Elidas had been treated for minor injuries by a local GP but thankfully the firefighters were still at the apartment when he came back, and they weren’t aware the dogs were sill inside.

“Apparently the firemen went back in and sure enough they were under the bed,” said Fiona. “One was small and one was quite big, so I don’t know how they both managed to fit under the bed, but they did.”

Fiona went above and beyond her call of duty to care for Bucci and Chance, and even took both dogs into her home as Elidas and Elvyra monitored their three-year-old daughter Leva who was recovering in hospital.

The local vet said that the case had moved her emotionally and that staff at Hillcrest were just happy to be able to give the two dogs back to a family who had just lost everything.

“I’ve been a vet for a number of years and I can’t say enough how humbling this was,” she said.

“They said ‘our apartment has burned down; all we have left is these dogs’.

“That was their priority. It was ‘how are the dogs?’ All their possessions were gone and it was just ‘how are the dogs?’ It was the most emotional case I’ve ever dealt with.”

Both Bucci and Chance were able to make full recoveries thanks to the care from Fiona and the staff at Hillcrest.